This is the second post in the series “MIEExpert
Spotlight for South Africa”. The tab with all the posts can be found at
Brescia House School in Johannesburg is well known for its
standards of excellence in education. It is a private Catholic school for girls that rates the use of
technology as a high priority for all students at the school. The girls use
different devices to suit the needs to the various age groups, for example
iPads are used in the Foundation Phase; Windows 8 tablets are used in the
Intermediate Phase and touch screen laptops are used in the High School.
Brescia House
is also a Microsoft Showcase school. As part of this program, the two principals from Brescia
House School have had an opportunity to attend Global Microsoft in Education
Forums. Benedikte Nott (Secondary School Headmistress) attended the Forum in
Dubai and Ann Owgan (Primary School Headmistress) attended the Forum in
Barcelona, Spain. Both found the
Microsoft in Education forums to be valuable professional development and
networking events. The
two principals aided by Lyneth Crighton who heads up ICT at Brescia have done a
good job of upskilling the staff at the school. So much so that this year a record number of 45
of their teachers applied for the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert program (MIEE) in South Africa. No less than 16 of these teachers were successful. The teachers in the MIEE program in 2016 are all
vying for a place to attend the upcoming E2 Global Teacher Exchange in Budapest in March
this year.
Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert teachers
This will be the first of three posts featuring the Brescia House teachers who have earned the title of Microsoft Innovative Teacher Expert in 2016. In this post
we will focus on five of the sixteen Brescia House teachers and display their
winning entries. For the application one could submit a lesson or project using an online program such as YouTube, Microsoft Sway etc.
1) Andrea Mitas
Andrea Mitas is the primary school music teacher. She submitted a lesson called ‘Andrea Mitas Music lesson on Peter and the Wolf. This is a music lesson on the instruments of the Symphony orchestra using Peter and the Wolf as the theme.
2) Ashley Roberts
Ashley Roberts, a Creative Arts and Music teacher at Brescia, submitted a Grade 8&9 Advert project video called ‘Using software to create and present’. The students used a range of software applications including PowerPoint, Audacity and Movie Maker to create
and then present a 30 second advert for a product around a theme of Roaring 20s (Grade 9) or Water (Grade 8).
3) Catherine Mullen
Catherine Mullen is a Grade 2 class teacher at Brescia House. She believes
that technology is preparing learners for the ever-changing real world. She
wants to encourage a mindset of life-long learning in her students. With all
the resources available to her at school she is able to give her learners up to date information and
they are able to discuss current affairs,
explore places they may never see and much more. Catherine submitted a video called ‘Mathematics Innovative Lesson’.
4) Charmaine Caine
Charmaine Caine is a Grade 4 teacher who is enjoying her
quest to find new and innovative ways of engaging her girls in learning experiences.
Her video, called Innovative Teaching, shows one of the themes she experimented with this year that
empowered her girls to use ingenuity, creativity and technology.
5) Graham West
Graham West is a Grade 8 – 12 History teacher at Brescia House. He submitted a Grade 9 History project called ‘Creating a Facebook page for a historic personality’. His focus on technology is using it to enhance learning in a
blended way together with more traditional teaching methods.
Well done to these teachers for their very inspiring lessons. If you would like to find inspiring lessons from global teachers please join the new Microsoft Educator Community at: https://education.microsoft.com/ and go to the Lessons page where you can search thousands of lesson plans created by educators for educators to help enhance teaching and learning.
